Coalition snubs Hull A&E for winter crisis cash

Hull North MP Diana Johnson will today visit the Accident and Emergency Department at Hull Royal Infirmary days after Ministers snubbed Hull for winter crisis cash.

Hull and East Yorkshire Health Trust recently bid for approximately £2m from the £250m extra funding being allocated to A&Es across the country to help relieve the increased pressures experienced during the winter months. This is part of the £500m of top-up funding for A&Es that the Prime Minister recently announced for the next two years.

News emerged last week that the NHS Trust covering Hull has been turned down by the Coalition Government for any share of this extra winter funding, even though neighbouring NHS Trusts are getting it.

When the House of Commons reconvenes in October, Hull North's Labour MP will press Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt on why Hull is not getting a share of this extra funding.

The Government’s A&E crisis has left nearly a million patients waiting longer than four hours to be seen in the last year alone. New figures have also emerged showing that the North of England has suffered the deepest cuts to nursing posts under the Coalition, at the same time as more prosperous parts of Southern England have seen an increase.

“It was announced that NHS Trusts in neighbouring areas to Hull and East Yorkshire - such as York, Leeds and Northern Lincolnshire – are getting extra A&E funding of up to £2m each. But the NHS Trust serving Hull saw their bid for around £2m rejected.

“NHS hospitals have to cope with the Coalition’s wasteful top-down reorganisation, the botched introduction of NHS 111 and the loss of thousands of nurses. New figures also show that the NHS in Yorkshire and Humber has lost 1,264 nursing posts since 2010 under the Coalition, while the South East Coast area has actually gained 552.

“As with the distribution of council funding, Hull is not getting a fair deal from this Coalition Government. Hull, the tenth most deprived area of the country, should be one of the first in line for any extra A&E funding.

“A&Es have had their worst summer in a decade, but now Hull’s A&E will have to get through the coming winter with none of the extra help given to other areas.”